For its 30th anniversary celebration, The Lion King took its sensational opening tune, “The Circle Of Life” to the Hollywood Bowl. Renowned for its bold, cultural displays and the hypnotic twining of African and Western entertainment, the Disney blockbuster-turned-Broadway musical resurrected the film’s vibrant heritage for its 30th, serving a majestic flashback to the songs that soundtracked most ’90s kids’ childhoods.
Selloane, dressed in traditional, tribalistic African garments and face-painted in royal blue, commands the stage as she clutches a wooden staff, crazily wailing the opening verse, “Naaaa sibenyaaa…” in crowd-silencing solitude, before chants and harmonies from unseen backing vocalists pad her wild, ancient tones with exotic tranquility. Selloane’s voice is simply indomitable, and The Music Man reckons it might even top the movie’s original female singer, Carmen Twillie!
Lebo M resumes his rightful position, relaying Selloane’s intro in his nostalgia-soaked voice, a cappella with the backing vocalists before conductor Sarah Hicks invites the live orchestra to conjure the equally nostalgic soundscape.
The audience gasps as two oddly skinny, animatronic giraffes grace the stage in a slow walk, before American music, film and TV sensation Jennifer Hudson, aged 41, stirs the crowd to screams of “Oh my God! God Almighty!” as she glides towards center-stage for her historic take on the Disney hit.
With just under 200k views to date, Jennifer Hudson’s performance is supernovic; adorned in the extravagant, Saharan orange dress evocative of African royalty as the stage design mimics the rising sun of The Lion King’s opening scene. Behind her, a troop of gazelles and lionesses leap the length of the stage as Jennifer reimagines the track’s final crescendo of melody, all to an unmissably awesome effect.
The Lion King’s 30th anniversary concert featured a host of original cast members, including Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella who voiced the unlikely meerkat and warthog double-act, Timon and Pumbaa. Jeremy Irons, who voiced the murderous traitor Scar, performed a fantastic rendition of “Be Prepared” complete with dancing hyenas, though The Lion King’s original hyena voice actress Whoopi Goldberg unfortunately didn’t make an appearance.
The sheer vibrancy of this performance, keeping the Hollywood Bowl spellbound from first to last note, begs us to wonder, was 1994 really that long ago? The flashbacks are real and the performers’ energy still runs rampant as if the spectacle was just debuting. Stunning.
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